[Openib-windows] SRP initiator

[Fab Tillier]

> From: Mirko Benz [mailto:mirko.benz at xiranet.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 18, 2005 6:52 AM
> 
> Hello,
> 
> we have tested OpenIB with a Mellanox PCI-X card under NT Server 2003/x86.
> 
> We have installed:
> - ib_bus.inf/InfiniBand Fabric
> - infinihost.inf/SilverStorm HCA 7000 InfiniBand HCA
> - netipoib.inf/SilverStorm IpoIB Adapter
> 
> We installed free build drivers. However during installation a number of
> debug build dlls are required
> (complibd.dll, dapld.dll, datd.dll, ibald.dll). Is this necessary?

These get installed to support user-mode applications.  Rather than force all
user-mode applications to be either debug or release, we provide both debug and
release libraries to allow a mix of applications.  This allows a user to use the
release version of Winsock Direct while at the same time developing a native-IB
version of their application.  Think of it as similar to the C runtime DLL -
there are both release and debug versions.

I'm likely going to change this to install only the release DLLs, and provide a
separate SDK package with headers, debug and release libraries for linking, and
debug DLLs for development support.

> All this seems to work - no failed devices in device manager and ping
> over ib to other IB hosts works.

Great!

> When installing the ib_srp.inf/InfiniBand SRP Miniport we get the
> following error:
> "device cannot start code 10". Any idea why this fails?

This typically means that the target did not accept the login request from the
initiator.  Check your target configuration to make sure it allows the
connection.

> The SRP .inf file states that XP is not supported. Is this true? Will
> this change?

The SRP miniport is written as a StorPort miniport driver.  XP (at least the x86
version) only supports the ScsiPort driver model.  The ScsiPort driver is a very
poor fit for IB as it expects to be running above real hardware with real
interrupts, and entry points into the port driver expect to be called with
particular internal locks held which the miniport has no access to.  In IB, the
miniport is really a virtual device - there's no hardware related to the
miniport in the host system.

Long term, the SRP driver will likely migrate to the iSCSI driver framework,
since it is designed to support network attached storage.  I don't yet have an
ETA for this.

I believe that XP on x64 supports the StorPort driver, but have not verified
this myself.  If that is the case, the SRP miniport should work fine on that
with minor edits to the INF file to allow installation.  The easiest way to
check is to look for storport.sys in the system32\drivers directory.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

- Fab